It's been a little over a year since the 2012 edition of successes and failures, so it seemed like a good time to update the tally. Let's get to it!

Old News

Turkeys: I've detailed my thoughts on turkeys in detail in previous posts, but to summarize: they were neither a rousing success or an abject failure--they just weren't worth it to me to raise in 2013.

Renting Land: This was both a success and a failure: a success that we were able to extricate ourselves from a situation where we didn't have a lease for our land (working via a verbal month to month agreement) and (to put it a nicely) a rather unpredictable landlord. It feels like a failure that we ever got oursevles into a potentially unsavory situation, but in the end it all worked out. When enough time has passed, I'll try to write more about the renting situation in more detail.

New News

The move to the new farm was all consuming for quite a while, and it's a wonder that we have any farm activities at all this year. As such, we're putting less pressure on the economics and micromanaging of the farm than last year. It's been nice, for instance, to not track my time, although I do miss the information it gave me about efficiency. Our goal for the year is to break even on the farm and keep the stress level to a minimum. That being said, there's still tons of stuff going on and ever constant turmoil and elation.Successes

Cattle: Thus far, our two steers continue to do great. One is quite a bit plumper than the other, but they both seem healthy. The only issue thus far has been flies. Having never been around cattle before, I didn't know they would be such fly magnets. I've been doing some research on flies and cattle and I've learned quite a bit. Basically, all pastured cattle will have some flies, the less the better. Amongst other problems, flies can negatively affect growth through blood consumption (yuck!). I've been counting the flies and they seem to be in the "okay" range, but I will continue to monitor.

Farmall Cub: The little tractor that could has turned out to have been an awesome investment. It's the perfect size for our five acres, did a good job molboard plowing, can pull my disc harrow (as long as the soil is dry enough), does a good job on ditches and keeping the pasture from getting too mature with the sickle bar mower, pulls my small utility trailer, and cultivates fairly well (I will need to do some modifications and repairs this winter, but nothing major). It's amazingly rugged for such an old machine and runs like a top. The only issue I had was adjusting the front wheel width. Both the adjustable axle and tie rods where seized from many, many years of non-adjustment. I got the axles loose with a great big hammer, and fabricated some tie rod extenders using a bolt, die, hacksaw, and couplers. Changing out implements is a pain compared to a three point hitch--but it's not that big of a pain.

Electric Fencing/Water System: I was able to bring all my wire and tubing from the old farm, and it's been working great in year two. The animals continue to respect the electric fence and drink and have their wallows supplied by cheap water equipment.

Bow/Edison: The decision to move to this community has been very successful. We are so much happier here than in Monroe. Amazingly, none of our neighbors here have told us that we need to get rid of our pigs because they're scaring their horses!

It's a WashPigs: The pigs have been more of a challenge this year than I was expecting. We brought three gilts, one proven sow, and one proven boar with us from Monroe. We expected all the ladies to be pregnant and farrow in March. A month went by and no piglets. Then, one of the gilts stopped showing interest in food and had to be put down. An autopsy revealed a full stomach and a completely empty intestinal tract. She looked like she may have had a growth near the outlet to the stomach, but I couldn't tell for sure. Another month went by and no piglets. At the beginning of May, the proven sow farrowed in the barn, but only six live piglets (one was stillborn and one was extremely small and died shortly after birth). She had farrowed 10 piglets in each of her previous farrowings. She farrowed in a communal stall in the barn and built her usual top quality nest and displayed her usual top quality, caring mothering skills. Those six piglets are currently doing great and growing like gangbusters. We had to move the herd out to the pasture in May (after alll, we were expecting farrowing in March) and one of the gilts farrowed on pasture at the beginning of June. Sadly, 8 of her 9 piglets were dead when I found her in the morning. The remaining piglet was fairly runty. She hadn't made a nest, just a shallow depression in the mud, and the dead piglets all lay at the bottom of the depression. I don't know if she crushed them or if they were all stillborn. She initially seemed to show good mothering skills to the runt, but eventually I found that it was getting emaciated. We tried feeding it and it seemed to do better for a while, but it too eventually died. Lastly, the remaining gilt hasn't shown any signs of pregnancy yet, and I've sold her to someone who wants to take a chance on her. I'm not sure what to make of my poor luck with pigs this year, but I'm not going to give up. We're committed to pigs and whether it means changing our husbandry methods or changing up our genetics, we're going to make sure we put the resources into raising healthy animals.

Chickens: The chickens have done fine on the new farm, but I was hoping that they would produce at least one clutch of chicks after I get a rooster in the spring. It ended up taking longer than I expected for the hens to warm up to him, but we now have our first broody hen sitting on a nest. We're not raising the chickens for sale, but they're still a big part of our farmstead.

Veggies: This is the second year that we've planted our food plots on unfamiliar land, and it can be fraught with uncertainty. Even on acreage as flat as ours, there is still quite a bit of variability in drainage, which affects where things can get planted. Learning that has been a process, and I'm hoping that knowledge will be of benefit to me next year. In addition, I seemed to be cursed with poor germination this year. I planted squash in early May, tempted by the hot weather we were having, and I think that was too early/land was too wet. Only about 50% of the Brussel Sprouts that I planted in the greenhouse germinated. Onions I'll get to below. We have just about an acre planted, which is almost overwhelming for me to manage. I will need to get more efficient if I want to increase the size of the food plots next year.

Old Barn: Mostly, the barn has been okay. Having almost no electricity to the barn is annoying, but I will be rewiring it soonish (gotta make money to spend money).

Failures

Colony Rabbit: After the failure at pastured rabbit last year, I thought I had settled on an acceptable compromise in housing all the rabbits together in large enclosures on deep litter, fed homegrown hay and greenchop collected with a lawnmower. They did well for nearly a year, but once we moved to the new farm, things started falling apart. We brought two first-time does and one buck with us, and both does kindled in April. Everything was fine for a few weeks, but once the kits were old enough to leave the nest, they started dieing. We think the does stopped nursing them, but we can't be sure. Some survived, only to be brutally killed by a weasel. I tried to make the enclosure weasel proof, but it found the smallest of holes. I've given up, and have resorted back to the tried and true method of raising rabbits in cages with pellets. I don't really think the rabbits mind the cage environment, and it's sure better than starvation or weasel attack. One of the things that I've learned is that I need to be careful trying to innovate in farming. There is a long history of what works and what doesn't with both animals and plant production. Trying to veer too far from the established norm can get you in trouble in a hurry. Also, predators are ubiquitous and you must protect your animals.Onions: Last, but not least, are the Alliums of my discontent. I just can't seem to succeed at growing onions in Western Washington. Last year, poor germination. This year, I tried both transplanting from seed in the greenhouse and direct seeding.I experienced poor germination on both. I experienced withering and dessication in the greenhouse. I experienced an overwhelming of weeds in the garden. And finally, what little survived was munched on by wild rabbits. I feel like onions are a test of my mettle, and I want to give them one more try next year. But for now, Fail.

Ah, onions and rabbits. Our onions (and garlic) seem to be considered a free for all by contigents of wild rabbits as well. I have adapted the strategy that if I feed them, they can feed me. We got a humane rabbit trap last year, and have caught about thirty rabbits by now. An added advantage is that now we have onions to put into the rabbit stew!

Reply

Jeff

6/26/2013 12:38:47 am

What kind of trap and bait do you use? I briefly tried trapping last year but with no success. Glad to see I'm not the only one battling the rabbits!

Your comment, "One of the things that I've learned is that I need to be careful trying to innovate in farming. There is a long history of what works and what doesn't with both animals and plant production. Trying to veer too far from the established norm can get you in trouble in a hurry." really stood out to me. As a Peach farmer whose family has farmed the same land for over 100 years, I can attest to the importance of relying on the tried and true farming practices. The environment is too unpredictable and you have to stick to what works year after year to be consistent.

pig related comments: If you're interested in knowing whether the pigs were stillborn or were smothered after death, cut open the dead piglet and remove a lung. If the lung floats, it drew a breath and was probably smothered. If it sinks it was stillborn. There are various diseases and conditions that will cause late-term stillborn pigs and depending on which one, some have vaccinations that will work.

I've written for years about the difficulties of pastured farrowing. It's a nice idea, and makes for a nice picture, and sometimes it works out and when it does it's wonderful. But when you take a look at most pasture farrowing operations, you'll see a mortality rate (live born vs weaned) of 50% or more. Industry has moved to farrowing crates to increase the number of weans, and it's not as pretty a picture, but if you're selling the pigs having 8 wean vs 4 wean is a big difference.
I've been building out my farrowing barn with farrowing pens, but there are some sows in my herd that just don't do well on their own. We note the tag numbers and route them to where they need to go based on our experience with that sow. Some go into a farrowing crate, some into a pen, some into group housing.

And pigs cannot take mud or rain. The sow doesn't feel it, and the mortality is too high. We keep a couple of calf domes around and will roll them over and put them on top of a sow that chose to farrow in a bad spot, and then move the sow and the litter when we get around to it; the dome keeps the piglets from wandering off and protects them from rain, allowing a couple of hours to prep a pen if we don't have one ready.

Reply

Jeff

7/14/2013 05:01:34 am

Thanks for the info on lungs. I will definitely check that out if/when this happens again. I'm also realizing I need to get (and pay) for vet support so that I can start a proper vaccination program. Somethings aren't worth being cheap.

I think I've settled on my farrowing plan (at least for now). I'll be modifying the barn this summer to create farrowing pens. The plan will be for a first farrowing in Late January/ February for butcher pigs and a second farrowing in August/September for weaners/bbq pigs.

The highest price for weaner pigs in this area is in late feb, early march. Fair pig sales drive some of it, and just general timing. A pig weaned in march will slaughter in oct and most folks who have raised pigs in the past want that timing. I saw prices from $110 to $150 a pig this last year during that time. Since then it's settled down at around $100 a pig for average sale price, which isn't making buyers happy but is an accurate reflection of the price of feed these days. It's been at $540 a ton for more than a year now. 7 years ago I was buying feed for $230 a ton.

I work to have as many pigs as I can farrow in January for march weaning, and have my second litter in Sept/Oct, that I mostly over-winter and sell as finished pigs in the spring, as the price per piglet isn't as attractive.

Don't get me wrong; I will sell pigs whenever I can, but I find that there's a natural timing for prices that it pays to pay attention to for me.

<i>"The only issue thus far has been flies. Having never been around cattle before, I didn't know they would be such fly magnets."</i>

The secret is chickens. Free ranging chickens. We have about 400 pigs out on pasture. We're just up hill from a marsh. Without the chickens we would have a lot of flies, mosquitoes, etc. With our ~300 chickens there are very few flies in evidence for a radius of about 1,500' or so around each of their home bases. The chickens only range out about 700' radius but they have a strong effect beyond themselves because flies come in to them as well.

Note that we don't grain/commercial feed our chickens - over fed chickens are lazy. I expect them to forage for a living. Organic pest control is their job. In the winter we feed them pastured pork, the left over pickings from our weekly slaughter.

As an added bonus they produce many thousands of eggs which when cooked (to double the available protein) are a great food for weaner and grower pigs. All a product of pasturing.

In nature birds naturally follow the herbivores, eating the insects, worms, etc. I bet this would help with your cattle's flies too.

Reply

Jeff

8/2/2013 03:58:20 am

Chickens would be my preferred fly catchers, but we recently acquired a dog that is in love with attacking chickens. If I free-ranged them, I'd be forced to leash our dog which would made me very sad. The chickens are currently in with our boar in a secure area, and doing a wonderful job of fly control and providing boar friendship